UNews - Claudia Malacrida

Dr. Olga Kovalchuk to be awarded 2019 ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Speaker Research Award

trevor.kenney — Wed, 22 May 2019 20:47:38 +0000

Recognized as a pioneer in the study of radiation biology, cancer and epigenetics, Dr. Olga Kovalchuk has been named the winner of the 2019 ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Speaker Research Award.

Kovalchuk, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Board of Governors Chair in Epigenetics of Health and Disease, and Canadian Institute of Health Research Chair in Gender and Health, has created one of the most robust research programs in the world. She is respected internationally for her groundbreaking discoveries, her volume of research and her proficiency at translating that research into community impact.

“Dr. Kovalchuk is an outstanding researcher on many levels,” says Dr. Claudia Malacrida, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s associate vice-president (research). “Her productivity is remarkable and she is one of our best at identifying interdisciplinary collaborations with colleagues from across campus, such as in neuroscience and biochemistry. She truly is at the leading edge of her field and her ability to translate that research into clinical and industrial directions is impressive.”

Kovalchuk’s groundbreaking work discovered that males and females respond differently to radiation, with females exhibiting more radiation effects. Further, Kovalchuk analyzed the effects of chemotherapy on the brain and discovered the existence and molecular nature of what is called chemo-brain and tumor brain phenomena. These findings have serious repercussions for the development of sex-specific radiation diagnostic and treatment plans, as well as sex-specific strategies to prevent and mitigate cancer treatment side effects on the brain.

Most recently, Kovalchuk led the first-ever study using big data to dissect the effects of smoking on biological aging.

She will be presented with the Speaker Research Award at the 2019 Spring Convocation Ceremony I at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 30, 2019 in the 1st Choice Savings Centre gymnasium.

Dr. Claudia Malacrida appointed to SSHRC governing council

caroline.zentner — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 23:51:28 +0000

Dr. Claudia Malacrida, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge associate vice-president (research), joins 14 other diverse Canadians in being appointed to the governing council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Kirsty Duncan, Canada’s science minister, announced the appointments to SSHRC, the federal research funding agency that promotes and supports post-secondary research and research training in the humanities and social sciences, in Ottawa this week.

“I welcome the returning and newly appointed council members to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council,” says Duncan. “This impressive list of diverse candidates will help the council further its support for the social scientists and scholars who are pushing the boundaries of knowledge and helping us better understand the world around us.”

“I’m honoured and excited to take on this new responsibility,” says Malacrida, who has been appointed to a three-year term. “As a social scientist with a long career in the West, I’m pleased to be included and to bring the perspectives of my colleagues to the national level.”

SSHRC plays an important role in Canada’s research and scientific landscape and is committed to fostering greater equity, diversity and inclusion in research. SSHRC invests more than $350 million every year, supporting more than 8,000 graduate students and nearly 14,000 researchers. The governing council meets regularly to set policy and program priorities and allocate budgets.

Malacrida, a professor of sociology, joined the U of L in 2002. Her work investigates questions of power and how difference is constructed, both historically and in the present. Her research interests include eugenics, relational challenges faced by disabled women, and issues of power and medicalization in childbirth practices.

“SSHRC funding is critical to sustaining research that responds directly to community needs and the improved quality of life of Canadians,” says Malacrida. “As someone who has been supported by SSHRC grants throughout my career, I appreciate how these funds support developing talent from undergraduate and graduate students right through to senior investigators working on global issues.”

New Take Two speaker series to focus on U of L research

caroline.zentner — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 17:34:17 +0000

As Associate Vice-President Research, Dr. Claudia Malacrida wants to demonstrate the diversity and depth of research done at a small, liberal arts institution like the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. To that end, she created a new speaker series called Take Two. Once underway, the Take Two sessions will feature two researchers who approach a topic from different perspectives.

For the inaugural talk, Malacrida will provide the community a report on the federal review panel, of which she was a member, and its findings on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 3:30 p.m. (Markin Hall Atrium). Attendees will have the opportunity to sign a petition to increase support for research funding that will be submitted to the Minister of Science, Kirsty Duncan.

Dr. Claudia Malacrida

“Part of my rationale for wanting to give this talk is to galvanize our response to the recommendations of the review panel and to garner support for the idea that fundamental research in Canada should be a level playing field for universities, regardless of their size,” says Malacrida.

Following consultations across the country, evidence gathered by the panel points to a research system that is underfed and overworked. The Alliance of Canadian Comprehensive Research Universities, to which the U of L belongs, has thrown its support behind the panel’s recommendations and is advocating for increases to annual federal spending on research and that it be distributed fairly to universities, both large and small.

The balance of the Take Two series will take a different direction, offering fresh insights on research being done at the U of L. The events will offer talks by two researchers who take different approaches to a related issue. Each researcher will have about 20 minutes to present, followed by a question-and-answer session.

“We wanted to create a novel format for the Take Two series,” says Malacrida. “We are asking these researchers to talk across disciplines in a way that will help people understand that exciting work happens here. We want to show that we have people working in all areas on campus who are contributing to our understanding of our social, cultural and physical worlds.”

The second session on Oct. 25 will focus on understanding childhood and difference. Dr. Jeffrey MacCormack (Education) conducts research on attentional issues in the classroom in children who experience difficulty socializing and regulating emotions. He’s interested in how play-based interventions can help regulate and modulate children’s behaviour in the classroom. The other speaker, Dr. Jan Newberry (Anthropology) will discuss the partnership between the U of L’s Institute for Child and Youth Studies and the Opokaa’sin Early Intervention Society. Through the Raising Spirit project, they’ve been collecting stories and images for a digital storytelling library to highlight Indigenous ways of knowing and to build community capacity collaboratively.

“Despite differing approaches, both researchers’ work is not about fixing kids who don’t fit in; it’s about changing the way we think about what ‘in’ ought to look like,” says Malacrida.

The third session on Nov. 23 brings together Drs. Maura Hanrahan and Monique Giroux (Native American Studies) to talk about their research. Hanrahan examines policy, especially as it relates to the way current approaches to Indigenous health research can operate to exclude the health concerns of Métis peoples. Giroux is both a scholar and fiddler. She studies how Métis identity is produced and regulated through dramatic works, as well as through performances at fiddling contests and cultural festivals.

In the fourth talk scheduled for Feb. 1, Dr. Chris Hopkinson (Geography) will talk about his research using LiDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors to create three-dimensional topographical maps used by governments and industries to assess flood hazards, manage wildlife habitat or create greenhouse gas strategies. Leanne Elias, a New Media professor, will talk about her experimental visualization of agricultural data, such as crop production.

“Elias visualizes those data through sound, light and visual images to produce art but also to convey information,” says Malacrida. “Both she and Hopkinson are working very different approaches to sustainability and environmental visualization.”

The fifth session of the series features Drs. Paul Vasey (Psychology) and Suzanne Lenon (Women and Gender Studies) talking about their research into gender, sex and sexuality. Vasey does fieldwork looking at both gender and sexuality in two cultures that recognize a third gender, the fa’fafine of Samoa and the muxes of the Istmo region of Oaxaca, Mexico. Lenon’s research focuses on the history and material aspects of marriage law, with respect to race, gender and sexuality, especially regarding same-sex marriage and polygamy.

Talks are scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m., with the Sept. 21 session taking place in the Markin Hall Atrium. Light refreshments will be provided and everyone is welcome to attend.

U of L humanities researchers secure federal grants

caroline.zentner — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:31:45 +0000

Four ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge professors have been awarded more than $300,000 in research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

“This year’s SSHRC results reflect a high standard of excellence amongst our humanists and social scientists, of which we can be rightly proud,” says Dr. Claudia Malacrida, associate vice-president research. “These researchers’ projects touch on vital aspects of cultural, civil and social life and each of them richly deserves this recognition.”

Dr. Abdie Kazemipur, a U of L sociology professor, has been awarded more than $138,000 over four years for a research project called After the Ottawa Attack. Kazemipur will examine the integration of Muslims in Canada in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Canada by Muslim converts. More details about his research project are available on the UNews website.

Dr. Fangfang Li, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge psychology professor, has received a grant worth more than $28,000. She and several fellow researchers at the U of L want to ensure the public has access to correct information about child language learning and are organizing a conference that will bring the various academic disciplines involved in child language acquisition research and the public together. The conference, to be hosted on a rotating basis with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, is planned to be an annual event. Check out the UNews website for more information.

Dr. Gloria Tian, an associate professor of finance at the U of L’s Calgary campus, and two fellow finance professors, will use their Insight Grant worth more than $94,000 to examine partnerships between corporations and the non-profit sector. Visit UNews to learn more about Tian’s project.

Dr. Hillary Rodrigues, a professor of Religious Studies, will investigate a growing component of the ‘spiritual but not religious’ group. The Modern Nondual Spirituality movement centres on the attainment of a key psychological realization where all conceptual dualities, especially those that distinguish the individual from the rest of reality, collapse. The movement hasn’t received much attention from religious scholars and Rodrigues plans to use his grant worth more than $43,000 to correct that situation. Further information on his study is outlined on UNews.

These grants will further knowledge in key areas of research that are of interest not only to ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, but also to professionals and the public.

Malacrida named to independent federal funding review panel

trevor.kenney — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 19:58:20 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Associate Vice-President (Research), Dr. Claudia Malacrida, has been invited to take part in an independent review of the manner in which the federal government provides funding for fundamental science.

Malacrida is one of eight distinguished research leaders and innovators who have been invited to serve on the independent review panel. Dr. David Naylor, former president of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto, will chair the panel.

“The Government of Canada understands the role of science in maintaining a thriving, clean economy and in providing the evidence for sound policy decisions,” says a Government of Canada news release. “To deliver on this role however, federal programs that support Canada's research efforts must be aligned in such a way as to ensure they are strategic, effective and focused on meeting the needs of scientists first.”

Launched by the Honourable Kristy Duncan, Minister of Science, the review will assess the program machinery that is currently in place to support science and scientists in Canada. The scope of the review includes the three granting councils, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), along with certain federally funded organizations such as the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

"Our government must ensure its support for fundamental research is coherent, effective and agile enough to keep pace with the dynamic nature of contemporary science,” says Duncan. “I encourage all Canadians to participate in this review by submitting their thoughts to this esteemed panel. Science, after all, is everybody's business.”

Malacrida is regarded as one of Canada’s leading sociologists. As a Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair, she investigates questions of power and the construction of difference historically and in the present. In 2015, she released her fourth book, A Special Hell: Institutional Life in Alberta’s Eugenics Years, which examined eugenics and the institutionalization of individuals with disabilities.

“It is an honour to be able to contribute to this important evaluation of where research and knowledge production have brought us in Canada, and what our future directions can and should be,” says Malacrida.

The review will take place over six months.

Open Mike - 2015 was a year of change

trevor.kenney — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 16:58:55 +0000

The holiday season offers us the opportunity to take pause and reflect on the past year, one that can be classified as a year of great change, both in our province and in our ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

At the forefront are the sweeping changes to government and the election of a new governing party and a host of new ministers with which we are now engaging. The transition is still in its early stages and we remain very optimistic for the future of post-secondary education under this new leadership structure.

Thank you for your service in 2015 and I wish you all the best throughout the holiday season and into an exciting new year.

On campus, we have also seen a great deal of change. Dr. Claudia Malacrida, recently appointed as Associate Vice-President (Research), has joined the Office of Research and Innovation Services (ORIS), working closely with Vice-President (Research) Dr. Erasmus Okine. I’d like to thank personally the efforts of Dr. Matthew Letts in his role as Acting Associate Vice-President (Research) under both Dr. Leslie Brown and Dr. Okine as substantial change and transition took place in ORIS. The work he put in was invaluable and points to a great future as a senior administrator.

I’d also like to acknowledge the significant contributions of our outgoing Board of Governors Chair Gordon E. Jong and his wife Elizabeth Martin Jong (BFA ’81). Gordon has been a part of the U of L family since graduating with Bachelor of Science (1980) and Bachelor of Management (1982) degrees and has served as a member of our board since 2006. His commitment to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ is remarkable and I know he will continue to champion the U of L going forward.

I would like to thank Richard Masson, who will be stepping into the role of Acting Board Chair during this time of transition, as well as Patrick Forrest, who will serve as Acting Vice-Chair.

We’ve realized some important milestones over the past year, from achieving the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s greatest increase in enrollment numbers, to realizing a new benchmark in student retention rates. The U of L once again was ranked third nationally in the annual Maclean’s rankings and garnered a top-five ranking from Research Infosource.

Pronghorn Athletics also underwent significant change over the past year and I’m excited for the future of our athletic programs under our new Director of Sport & Recreation Services, Ken McInnes.

It has been a very positive start to the 2015-16 season with the women’s soccer program qualifying for playoffs, the women’s rugby team earning a berth in the national championship tournament and both our men’s and women’s hockey teams getting off to hot starts in Canada West play. Meanwhile, the men’s basketball program is on top of the Pioneer Division at the holiday break and looks poised for a big season.

In speaking both with coaches and athletes, it’s quite evident that they are feeling much better about their place at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and I believe that stability and enthusiasm has translated into great results.

I have always believed that having a vibrant athletics program is an essential aspect of an engaged campus, much in the same way our Faculty of Fine Arts adds to the campus experience. Both athletics and the arts contribute so much to the campus experience, and likewise to the southern Alberta community.

I thank everyone for the roles they played in helping the U of L achieve these accolades. From great teaching to important research and terrific service to our students and the southern Alberta community, everyone on campus has played a part in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s successes.

As I look ahead to 2016, I’m optimistic even more good news is on the horizon. We are looking forward to further development of the Destination Project and with our 50th Anniversary just a year away, plans continue to take shape for that significant milestone in our university’s history. Please engage with the anniversary committee should you have any ideas on how the U of L should mark the occasion.

Thank you for your service in 2015 and I wish you all the best throughout the holiday season and into an exciting new year.

Sexual and reproductive rights to be examined during conference

caroline.zentner — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 21:01:44 +0000

Alberta has its own dark history of controlling sexuality, starting with the Alberta Sterilization Act enacted in 1928. While the act was repealed more than 40 years ago, organizers of the Controlling Sexuality and Reproduction conference felt it was time to explore the current situation concerning people’s sexual and reproductive rights.

“It’s a human right to have access to sexual and reproductive autonomy, to have the capacity to make choices about your sexuality and your family life,” says Dr. Claudia Malacrida, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge sociology professor who, with Dr. Suzanne Lenon of the Women and Gender Studies department, is organizing the conference set to run from Aug. 12 to 14. “We’re seeing that in new ways around things like gay marriage but there have always been groups of people for whom such autonomy is not permissible.”

Organizers of the Controlling Sexuality and Reproduction conference include, from left to right, Drs. Claudia Malacrida and Suzanne Lenon, and Tiffani Semach, Sociology department project co-ordinator.

Such groups can include people with disabilities or mental health problems, people with non-heterosexual practices or identities, transgendered people, First Nations people, those who practice polygamy or polyamory, and impoverished people.

“People who were targeted 100 years ago are every bit as likely to be targeted in this era. It’s just a leopard that doesn’t change its spots in a lot of ways,” she says. “The hidden message is that there is an ideal citizen who is entitled to emotional relationships, committed sexual encounters and the capacity to have children and raise them.”

The Controlling Sexuality and Reproduction conference will bring together presenters in a variety of disciplines, including history, sociology, women and gender studies, anthropology, law, and disability studies, from around the world.

“We have people from all of those disciplines represented, speaking about varied ways of constraining perceived troubled sexuality and reproduction,” says Malacrida. “The conference really does address all kinds of notions about what ‘normal’ looks like and what kinds of privileges are conferred upon those deemed to be normal, while the rest are left to struggle to obtain their rights.”

The conference opens on Aug. 12 with a keynote speech from Dr. Paul Lombardo, a professor of law with Georgia State ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ who has written about the legal history of the American eugenics movement. The next two days will be filled with almost 60 presentations, poster displays and several workshops. Presentation topics include everything from transgender reproduction to the birth control movement in China. In addition, an information and book fair will be available Thursday. Closing keynote speaker Dorothy Roberts, a professor of law and sociology at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Pennsylvania and author of ‘Killing the Black Body,’ is a social justice advocate whose work touches on law and the intersections of race, class and gender.

In addition, a gala on the evening of Aug. 13 will showcase performance-based artists, poets and dancers. Included in the lineup are CRIPSiE, an Edmonton-based inclusive dance organization, and Kathy Austin, a spoken word artist.

The opening reception, keynote speeches, academic talks and the information and book fair are open to the general public.

“We organized this conference not just to have a bunch of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ standing at a podium giving a talk, but to show that change is being produced at the grass roots level and that academic work matters,” says Malacrida.

Tickets to the gala evening and performances are available online through Conference Services. Conference events can be followed using the Twitter hashtag #controllingsex2015.

Board approves multiple faculty, staff and administrative appointments

trevor.kenney — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 17:32:07 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Board of Governors recently convened and approved a number of faculty, staff and administrative appointments that are scheduled to officially take effect July 1, 2015.

Following is a summary of these appointments.

Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President (Academic) - Dr. Lesley Brown

Dr. Lesley Brown has been appointed for a five-year term as the Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President (Academic).

Currently the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Interim Vice-President (Research) and a professor of kinesiology, Brown first came to the U of L in 1997 as an assistant professor in the department of Kinesiology and Physical Education following her post-doctoral studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Oregon. Brown's research portfolio has been focused on the aging process, balance, falling, fear of falling and Parkinson's Disease.

Brown was appointed Associate Vice-President (Research) in 2011 and served in that role until 2014 when she assumed responsibility as the Interim Vice-President (Research). She has led some very important initiatives while serving in that role, including being the driving force behind the development of AGILITY and its subsequent launch. Her passion for entrepreneurship and innovation will see her play a lead role in the continued development of AGILITY as the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ moves forward.

Dean, Health Sciences - Dr. Christopher Hosgood

Dr. Chris Hosgood has been reappointed as Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences for a further five-year term.

Hosgood, the former Chair of the Department of History, will be taking on his third term as Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences as he presided over the transition of the Faculty from a School in 2009. He played a major role in the expansion of both student enrolments and Faculty programs, including the recent introduction of the Bachelor of Therapeutic Recreation program, and saw the Faculty through its move into Markin Hall.

A Co-Chair on the Health Sciences Placement Network Management Committee as well as a member of the Alberta SPOR Steering Committee, Hosgood was recently appointed to the Alberta Health Research Task Force.

Dean, Graduate Studies - Dr. Robert Wood

Dr. Robert Wood has been reappointed as Dean, Graduate Studies for a further five-year term.

Wood had served in the role of Dean since January 2011 and was previously the Interim Head of the School of Graduate Studies and Chair of the Department of Sociology.

A sociology researcher and faculty member since 2000, Wood is the author or co-author of two books and numerous research articles on gambling issues, and has recently produced a trio of journal articles examining various aspects of problem gambling. He is currently the President of the Western Canadian Deans of Graduate Studies, a post he accepted February 1, 2015 after serving the previous two years as the organization's vice-president.

Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Organizations, Culture, and Society) - Dr. Paul Vasey

Dr. Paul Vasey, a professor in the Department of Psychology, conducts cross-species and cross-cultural research to answer the question: If reproduction is the engine that drives evolution, why engage in non-conceptive sex?

For the past decade he has done research on the development and evolution of female homosexual behaviour in free-ranging Japanese monkeys at various sites in Japan. He also studies the development and evolution of male same-sex sexual attraction in humans at field sites in Samoa, Japan and Canada.

Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Organizations, Culture, and Society) - Dr. Claudia Malacrida

Dr. Claudia Malacrida is a sociologist and oral historian well-known for her investigations on power and the construction of difference historically and in the present. This focus has led to investigations of eugenics and institutionalization abuses in Alberta at the Michener Centre; comparative projects examining the challenges disabled women face in their sexual, relational and family lives; and, questions of power and medicalization in local childbirth practices.

In each area, she is concerned about how seemingly personal and embodied experiences are constrained and produced through public policy, social attitudes and professional practice.

Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Earth and Environment) - Dr. Larry Flanagan

Dr. Larry Flanagan, a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences, is being reappointed as a Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair. He gained international recognition for his contributions to addressing carbon cycling and climate change.

His research program involves applying a range of techniques from eco-physiology and ecosystem ecology to study how plants and ecosystems acclimate to environmental change. This includes field studies with plants growing in their native habitats, in addition to lab and controlled environment studies.

Understanding these fundamental processes provides the basis for modelling and predicting plant and ecosystem response to global climate change.

Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Healthy Futures) - Dr. Gerlinde Metz

Dr. Gerlinde Metz is a researcher in the Department of Neuroscience, and is being appointed as a Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Health Futures) for a period of five years.

Her research program focuses on the influence of experience and environment on behaviour and brain plasticity. Her work showed that stress affects motor system function, risk of Parkinson's disease and recovery from stroke. This research indicated that adverse experience at any time in life can become a predisposing or precipitating factor of disease. More recently, her laboratory has developed unique models to explore transgenerational inheritance of stress responses. Through transgenerational programming, experience in parents, grandparents and beyond can influence health and disease from early development to old age.

Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Origins and Explorations) - Dr. Stacey Wetmore

Dr. Stacey Wetmore is a recognized leader in computational chemistry, and has been appointed a Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Origins and Explorations) for the period April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2022.

She has successfully established a vigorous and prolific research program exploring the reactions between DNA and various harmful chemicals in order to understand how DNA is damaged, and how enzymes in our body repair DNA by chemically removing the damaged sections of DNA.

An understanding of DNA damage and repair processes in our bodies will aid the design of new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease. No other Canadian researcher is studying these important (health-related) areas using computational methods. The range of approaches, close collaborations with experimental labs, and systematic attack of entire classes of biomolecules has distinguished Wetmore's research on the international stage.

Assistant Dean, Northern Campuses - Lorne Williams

Lorne Williams has been reappointed to serve as the Assistant Dean (Northern Campuses) for a further three-year term.

A respected alumnus and member of the U of L Honour Society, Williams was first named Acting Assistant Dean (Northern Campuses) in 2012. He has more than 20 years of U of L experience, including more than a decade of work in the Calgary market as a director, instructor and co-ordinator at the U of L Calgary campus. During his time there, he has won six teaching awards.

Williams consults widely on team building, leadership and corporate culture for public, private and not-for-profit organizations of all sizes. In the past year, he has served as the opening speaker at both the Faculty of Management Student PD Conference and the Canada/China Trade and Investment Forum, and was invited to give the keynote address at the Keeping People Important - MacEwan ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ PD Day.

Associate Vice-President (Research) - Dr. Matthew Letts

Dr. Matthew Letts has been extended as the Associate Vice-President (Research) for a period of six months, June 30, 2015 to December 31, 2015.

A faculty member in the Department of Geography, Letts is an accomplished researcher who is currently working on two projects. One, sponsored by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) is studying plant physiological response to environmental stress in semiarid ecosystems. He is also part of the team that is currently working on Functional flows: a practical strategy for healthy rivers, as sponsored by Alberta Innovates - Environmental Solutions.

Chancellor Emerita - Dr. Shirley McClellan

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's 12th Chancellor, Dr. Shirley McClellan was named Chancellor Emerita.

McClellan served as Chancellor from 2011 to 2015 and was a strong advocate for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge over that time.

A veteran Alberta politician and former deputy premier of the Province of Alberta, McClellan had long been involved in bringing further education to rural areas, serving on the board of directors for the Alberta Association of Continuing Education and the Canadian Association for Continuing Education.

A story that had to be told

caroline.zentner — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 19:37:59 +0000

Their first sight of the imposing four-story brick edifice that was the main administration building at Michener Centre was etched in the memories of many children, chiseling a turning point in their lives. One woman described her experience as a 10-year-old.

‘I was told to sit down and wait in the hallway with a suitcase by my chair, and then the staff came and took my arm and my suitcase and put me in this bedroom by myself with the suitcase and shut the door. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my mom.’

A woman who was 15 when she moved into Michener recalled having the sense she wouldn’t be going home with her family as soon as she set foot inside the building. Others remembered wondering why they were there, how long they would stay and when they could return home.

Those are among the memories 22 survivors of the Michener Centre shared with Dr. Claudia Malacrida, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge sociologist, for her new book titled A Special Hell: Institutional Life in Alberta’s Eugenic Years.

Malacrida first became interested in the people who had lived at the Michener Centre when she was a doctoral student working on a book project with the Alberta Association for Community Living. The book described the experiences of approximately 40 people who lived in provincial institutions. Malacrida began collecting stories and conducting interviews.

“This is just a story that has to be told,” says Malacrida. “I teach my students about this and they don’t know we had a eugenics act.”

Along with interviewing ex-staff members and a parent who relinquished two children to Michener, Malacrida scoured archival materials to provide readers with the historical context in which the Michener Centre was established and memories of what life was like on the inside. A Special Hell is an in-depth look at institutional life with a focus on the years 1928 to 1972 when Alberta’s forced sterilization program was in effect.

“Many of these people came out of the institution in the ‘70s and ‘80s through organizations like the Alberta Association for Community Living, which started with parents who really saw the conditions of the institutions and thought there had to be a better way,” says Malacrida.

Opened in 1923, the Provincial Training School, as it was known then, became a place for ‘mental defectives,’ a term that was in use at the time. Prevailing thought in the early 1900s was that mental defects were genetically inherited and could be stopped from spreading to the rest of the population through both segregation and sterilization. This belief in eugenics permeated the West for the first half of the 20th century and led to the building of institutions like the Michener Centre.

Opened first as a single building housing 108 people, by the 1970s the Michener campus included 66 buildings, including a fire hall, a grain house, a shoemaker, an industrial laundry, kitchen and sewing rooms, and iron works, and housed more than 2,300 people.

While it was originally conceived of as a place for training and education, less than 20 per cent of the children who lived there received any formal education. In practice, many people entered the institution as children, transferred to the adult part of the campus when they turned 18 and lived their entire lives at Michener. The deinstitutionalization movement, with its emphasis on community living, only began to take shape in the 1970s and Alberta’s sexual sterilization law wasn’t repealed until 1972.

Survivors told her about the reasons that led to their incarceration at Michener, including their own difficult behaviours, problems in the traditional classroom, truancy, long-term illness, and family issues like poverty, single parenthood or abuse in the home.

After they arrived, their clothing, toys and personal possessions were taken away. They rarely saw their families after moving to Michener and families were often discouraged from visiting for the first year to give their child time to acclimatize to the institution. Little by little, children’s sense of personal identity was stripped away and they had no privacy, even while showering or using the toilet.

Daily life at Michener was regimented. Once residents had been toileted and fed, inmates who did not attend school were put in the day room. These rooms were sparsely furnished with a television droning on in the background and no interaction with staff.

Staff sometimes treated residents poorly, abusing them, and sometimes residents abused other residents. Violence was a regular occurrence and incident reports from the institution’s archives show numerous reports of inmates suffering bruises and lacerations. An ex-worker said pushing, kicking, shoving, tying residents down and slapping their faces occurred on a daily basis.

“Violence became an ordinary part of life. One guy talked about how, if he really wanted a break from the craziness of the ward, he’d go over and bite somebody or hit an orderly and know that he would get into the time-out room so that he could actually have some predictability and peace,” says Malacrida.

Vocational training included an agricultural program and making furniture to be sold at the twice-yearly tea and sale events. Residents also worked in the community for local families and farmers.

“When people asked why they didn’t get paid, they were told that this was their training. So there was lots of economic abuse, too,” says Malacrida. “Ironically, many of the women I interviewed who had been sterilized because they were not fit for motherhood worked as nannies for families in the Red Deer community.”

In return, Michener Centre provided employment for the citizens of Red Deer, with one in five people employed there when the centre was at its largest.

In the late 1960s, after a number of scandals, deaths in custody and deaths during escape at Alberta institutions, R.W. Blair was appointed to investigate. The Blair Report didn’t suggest abolishing the eugenic law but recommended Michener be closed.

“Going back that far, the government has been toying with the idea and promising it will close Michener, but it doesn’t happen,” she says.

The political flip-flopping occurred as recently as last fall. When she was premier, Alison Redford announced in March 2013 that the Michener Centre would be closed and the remaining residents, numbering roughly 125, would transition to community living. Redford’s decision met with backlash and Alberta Premier Jim Prentice reversed the decision last September.

Malacrida, and the survivors she interviewed, would like to see Michener Centre closed. Even though efforts have been made to make Michener Centre homier for its remaining residents, Malacrida says eliminating the physical buildings is the only way to prevent its legacy from living on, unlike the etched images that remain in survivors’ memories.

Apart from the political wrangling over the fate of the Michener Centre, many former residents have thrived in their new homes in the community, some achieving literacy and others reveling in the ability to make simple choices like what to wear on any given day. Despite the deprivations they lived with for years, the survivors Malacrida interviewed didn’t hold a grudge.

“They were forgiving in their tone and they felt sad that their families had been lost to them, as was the case for almost all of them. They knew it was wrong that they’d been sterilized but they didn’t blame any specific individual. It was a pretty inspiring group as far as the capacity for human forgiveness goes,” says Malacrida.

Provocative new book opens doors on life at Alberta’s Michener Centre during province’s eugenics years

caroline.zentner — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 20:25:41 +0000

Dr. Claudia Malacrida has thrown the doors open on an era of Alberta’s past that many would prefer to forget. Her new book, A Special Hell: Institutional Life in Alberta’s Eugenic Years, talks about life at the infamous Michener Centre from the perspective of people who lived there, worked there and had children institutionalized there.

“This is just a story that has to be told,” says Malacrida. “I teach my students about this and they don’t know we had a eugenics act. Even though people who grew up in Red Deer knew about Michener, they have this kind of clouded view of what happened there.”

Malacrida, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge sociology professor, became interested in the residents of Michener Centre while working on a book project with the Alberta Association for Community Living when she was a doctoral student.

That project traced the lives of some 40 people and their experiences of living in provincial institutions, including Red Deer’s Michener Centre, established in 1923 for people who were labeled as being ‘mentally defective.’ This label made them vulnerable to Alberta’s eugenics laws allowing forced sterilization of mental defectives, which were in effect from 1928 to 1972.

“I’m interested in Michener primarily because it was the largest feeder for the eugenics program. I began collecting stories and I ended up interviewing 22 survivors, people who had lived there primarily between the ‘50s and the ‘80s,” she says. “All of them left as a result of the deinstitutionalization movement. Many of them were admitted in very early childhood and stayed many decades. It was a hard life and, of those 22, most were sterilized.”

After first being refused a tour by the parent-run board of Michener in 2001, she eventually succeeded in making a visit to the site in 2004 after the facility fell under the purview of Persons with Developmental Disabilities.

“The book traces how it would have been as a child to enter that experience, what kinds of stories were told to kids, what kinds of things brought them to the institution,” she says.

The stories, backed up by archival records, showed that new immigrants were over represented in the institutional population as they found their way into school systems that couldn’t accommodate them. Children who had illnesses like polio that took them out of the school system for several years also couldn’t be accommodated when they were ready to return to school. Many described themselves as being learning disabled. Others were institutionalized because their parents were impoverished or didn’t want them, or because their social or sexual behaviour was judged to be a problem.

Parents were not encouraged to visit their children for a time — some indicated it was a full year — when their child first moved into Michener to provide what the institution claimed was a necessary period of acclimatization.

“Parents were sort of alienated and then to visit your kid in a place like this was just horrific. It was chronically overcrowded, there was no privacy, it stunk of urine and feces as there were some very fragile people who needed a lot of intensive care and didn’t get it,” says Malacrida.

What became obvious through her interviews with survivors is a testament to their capacity for forgiveness.

“All of them were clear that they would never want to go back, that they felt that Michener should be closed, that it was not right what had happened to them, but they never really spoke ill about anybody,” she says.

Michener Centre is not like it was in those days but Malacrida says its physical presence will always serve as a reminder of dark times.

“I realize that Michener is not the place that it was but that is really not the point. As long as there are bricks and mortar there, as long as there is a valuable asset there, then there’s a temptation to exploit it,” she says.

Malacrida’s book is available at the U of L Bookstore, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto Press and online at indigo.ca and amazon.com.

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